Improve the market-oriented allocation system of resources and environmental factors

Improving the market-oriented allocation of factors is an intrinsic requirement for building a unified, open, competitive and orderly market system, and is an important part of upholding and improving the basic socialist economic system and speeding up the improvement of the socialist market economic system. The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China proposed to "improve the market-oriented allocation system of resources and environmental factors". This is a major basic mechanism innovation in the field of resources and environment in China, which is conducive to promoting the independent and orderly flow of factors, improving the efficiency of allocation, improving the productivity of green total factors including resources and environmental factors, guiding the agglomeration of various resource elements to green and low-carbon development, and allowing business entities to obtain reasonable returns in protecting the ecological environment.

Improving the market-oriented allocation system of resources and environmental factors is an effective way to stimulate new momentum for green development. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that "it is necessary to promote a better combination of an effective market and a promising government, integrate resource and environmental elements such as carbon emission rights, energy use rights, water rights, and pollutant discharge rights into the overall plate of factor market-oriented allocation reform, and support market transactions such as transfer, transfer, mortgage, and shareholding." It is of great significance to expand the scope of market-oriented allocation of factors, improve the factor market system, and promote the construction of factor market system to promote high-quality development and build a modern economic system. Resources and environmental elements are scarce, and it is necessary to establish and improve relevant mechanisms that can fully reflect their scarcity, reflect ecological value and environmental cost. The market-oriented allocation of resources and environmental factors is conducive to the formation of reasonable prices of resources and environmental factors and the improvement of the utilization rate of resources and environmental factors. By clarifying the property rights of resources and environmental elements such as carbon emission rights, energy use rights, water rights, and pollutant discharge rights, and establishing a price mechanism covering the whole cost, it will help establish the concept of "resources and environment are valuable" in the whole society, and enhance the awareness of green development that "carbon emission has costs and carbon reduction has benefits". The market-oriented trading of resources and environmental elements can improve the allocation efficiency of resource and environmental rights and interests among different departments, industries and regions, dynamically allocate limited indicators to business entities with higher efficiency, reduce the cost of energy conservation, pollution reduction and carbon reduction in the whole society, and accelerate the green transformation of development mode.

At present, on the basis of the total amount management target set by the government and the scientific determination of the initial allocation quota, a complete set of systems for market-oriented trading of important resources and environmental elements such as carbon emission rights, energy use rights, water use rights, and pollutant discharge rights are gradually established by each business entity based on the difference between the actual use or emissions and the initial quota. The market-oriented trading of resources and environmental elements should be combined with the development stage of the relevant trading markets in various regions, establish a reasonable and efficient market system, innovate and enrich trading methods and trading products, and improve the institutional design of the trading system in an all-round way. It is necessary to explore the establishment of trading mechanisms between regions, between different pollutants, and between point sources and non-point sources, accelerate the construction of carbon markets, and explore trading mechanisms for the transfer, transfer and leasing of water resource access rights. In addition, considering the homologous nature of carbon dioxide and conventional air pollutant emissions, it is necessary to explore the cohesion and cooperation mechanism of emission trading and carbon emission trading, and promote carbon reduction, pollution reduction, green expansion and growth in a coordinated manner.

The market-oriented trading of resources and environmental elements focuses on determining the right to use resources and the emission rights of pollutant emitters through the issuance of quotas, providing the property rights basis of the market trading mechanism, and using the market mechanism to realize the effective allocation of natural resources and environmental capacity resources by creating a resource and environmental market with clear rules and fair transactions. To improve the market-oriented allocation system of resources and environmental factors, it is also necessary to improve the operation mechanism of the factor market, including improving the market-oriented trading platform of resources and environmental factors, improving the trading rules and services of resources and environmental factors, improving the level of supervision of resource and environmental factor transactions, and establishing and improving the risk management and control mechanism, etc. By giving full play to the functions of price discovery and optimal allocation of resources in market-oriented transactions, we will help improve environmental quality, save resources, promote technological progress, and promote green and low-carbon economic and social development.

China has a vast territory and a large population, and the natural resource endowments of various regions vary greatly, so it is necessary to coordinate regional development, give full play to the comparative advantages of various regions, promote the rational flow and efficient agglomeration of various factors, and form a national unified, open, competitive and orderly commodity and factor market. To improve the regional coordinated development mechanism in many aspects, it is necessary to pay close attention to the implementation of policies and measures, including improving the dual control system of energy consumption and establishing an ecological compensation system. Improve the market-oriented allocation system of resources and environmental factors, rely on the national regional development strategy, effectively gather and integrate innovative elements, accelerate the integration of resources and environmental elements into economic development, build a dynamic resource and environmental factor market in key regions, and accelerate the promotion of the wide application of advanced technologies for energy conservation and carbon reduction in different regions through strong incentives and guidance of regional environmental and economic policies, and promote the formation of green and low-carbon production methods and lifestyles.

The author is a researcher at the Ningxia Research Center for the Theoretical System of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics